7 lessons Lance Armstrong's confession has taught us

Just Watched

Armstrong emotional over apology to son

Story highlights

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency still wants an official confession under oath

Armstrong destroyed people on the way up, who are waiting for him on the way down

The cyclist cheated for years, but nobody stopped him

Armstrong told his own son not to defend him

The fairy tale of a cancer survivor from Austin, Texas, who beat the odds to win the Tour de France a record seven times, has morphed into a parable about telling a lie.

Lance Armstrong has been revealing in his two-part exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey Thursday and Friday night, but critics say he is leaving out important details.

There has been a lot to learn from Armstrong and from those watching him as he starts to tell the truth.

Getting caught is just the beginning.

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall 28 photos

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After denying the allegations for years, cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. As a result, he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and an Olympic bronze medal. Click through the gallery for a look at his life and career.

Hide Caption

1 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong, 17, competes in the Jeep Triathlon Grand Prix in 1988. He became a professional triathlete at age 16 and joined the U.S. National Cycling Team two years later.

Hide Caption

2 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong wins the 18th stage of the Tour de France in 1995. He finished the race for the first time that year, ending in 36th place.

Hide Caption

3 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong rides at the Ikon Ride for the Roses to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation in May 1998. He established the foundation to benefit cancer research after he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996. After treatment, he was declared cancer-free in February 1997.

Hide Caption

4 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong leads his teammates during the final stage of the 1999 Tour de France.

Hide Caption

5 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong takes his honor lap on the Champs-Élysées in Paris after winning the Tour de France for the first time in 1999.

Hide Caption

6 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After winning the 2000 Tour de France, Armstrong holds his son Luke on his shoulders.

Hide Caption

7 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong rides during the 18th stage of the 2001 Tour de France. He won the tour that year for the third consecutive time.

Hide Caption

8 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong celebrates winning the 10th stage of the Tour de France in 2001.

Hide Caption

9 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After winning the 2001 Tour de France, Armstrong presents President George W. Bush with a U.S. Postal Service yellow jersey and a replica of the bike he used to win the race.

Hide Caption

10 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong celebrates on the podium after winning the Tour de France by 61 seconds in 2003.

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – After his sixth consecutive Tour de France win, Armstrong attends a celebration in his honor in front of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

Hide Caption

13 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong arrives at the 2005 American Music Awards in Los Angeles with then-fiancee Sheryl Crow. The couple never made it down the aisle, splitting up the following year.

Hide Caption

14 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong holds up a paper displaying the number seven at the start of the Tour de France in 2005. He went on to win his seventh consecutive Tour de France.

Hide Caption

15 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong testifies during a Senate hearing in 2008 on Capitol Hill. The hearing focused on finding a cure for cancer in the 21st century.

Hide Caption

16 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – In 2009, Armstrong suffered a broken collarbone after falling during a race in Spain.

Hide Caption

17 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Young Armstrong fans write messages on the ground ahead of the 2009 Tour de France. He came in third place that year.

Hide Caption

18 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong launches the three-day Livestrong Global Cancer Summit in 2009 in Dublin, Ireland. The event was organized by his foundation.

Hide Caption

19 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – In May 2010, Armstrong crashes during the Amgen Tour of California. That same day, he denied allegations of doping made by former teammate Floyd Landis.

Hide Caption

20 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong looks back as he rides during the 2010 Tour de France.

Hide Caption

21 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong's son Luke; his twin daughters, Isabelle and Grace; and his 1-year-old son, Max, stand outside the Radio Shack team bus on a rest day during the 2010 Tour de France.

Hide Caption

22 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong finished 23rd in the 2010 Tour de France. He announced his retirement from the world of professional cycling in February 2011. He said he wanted to devote more time to his family and the fight against cancer.

Hide Caption

23 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – The frame of Armstrong's bike is engraved with the names of his four children at the time and the Spanish word for five, "cinco." His fifth child, Olivia, was born in October 2010.

Hide Caption

24 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong competes in the 70.3 Ironman Triathlon in Panama City, Florida, in February 2012. He went on to claim two Half Ironman triathlon titles by June of that year.

Hide Caption

25 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – Armstrong addresses participants at the Livestrong Challenge Ride on October 21, 2012, days after he stepped down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer charity.

Hide Caption

26 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid announces the decision to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France wins and ban him from the tournament for life on October 22, 2012. "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling," he said.

Hide Caption

27 of 28

Photos: Lance Armstrong's rise and fall28 photos

Lance Armstrong's rise and fall – In January 2013, Armstrong speaks with Oprah Winfrey about the controversy surrounding his cycling career. He admitted, unequivocally and for the first time, that he used performance-enhancing drugs while competing.

Armstrong admitted to personal guilt but was careful not to implicate others.

Things escalated to the level they did "because of my actions and because of my words, and because of my attitude and my defiance," he said.

But he also blamed the culture of cycling during the time he doped, saying the practice was widespread and just as much "part of the job" as water bottles and tire pumps.

There were also allegations he still denies, like coercing teammates to dope as well.

People will believe a lie.

Armstrong cheated for years, and no one in the sport of cycling stopped him. He lied under oath about his use of performance enhancing drugs. "Hundreds of millions," as Armstrong has put it, believed him, adored him, and many wore yellow bracelets, because he inspired them.

The fairy tale image was "one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," Armstrong said. It became impossible to live up to and it fell apart.

He publicly derided those trying to expose him, ruining some of their lives. "We sued so many people," Armstrong told Winfrey -- people who were telling the truth and lost to him in court in spite of it.

It was about controlling the narrative of his heroic story. "If I didn't like what somebody said ... I tried to control that and said that's a lie; they're liars," Armstrong said.

"Now the story is so bad and so toxic, and a lot of it is true," he said.

Be nice to people on your way up.

You may meet them on your way down. Lance has. And now the tables have turned.

"This was a guy who used to be my friend, who decimated me," said Betsy Andreu, the wife of one of Armstrong's former teammates, who went public with doping allegations against Armstrong.

Andreu, author Daniel Coyle, journalist David Walsh, whom Armstrong attacked for writing about his doping for over a decade, former teammates and others he has discredited and sued have now gained plausibility.

They are already critiquing his confession and casting doubt on its completeness. Andreu and Coyle have called Armstrong out over his denial of allegations that he coerced teammates to use performance enhancing drugs.

It's hard to regain trust.

Armstrong's lies and bullying rattled his fans, former friends and teammates, even his own children.

"I will spend the rest of my life ... trying to earn back trust and apologize to people," Armstrong told Winfrey.

Sunday Times journalist Walsh believes the cyclist's bullying was worse than his lies and left behind deeper scars.

"He never showed any compassion during his years or any sense that it troubled him to destroy other people," Walsh said.

Armstrong said he had been ruthless because he "expected to get whatever he wanted and to control every outcome."

"There will be people who hear this and never forgive me," he said. "I understand that."

The emotional damage to his children seemed to touch him the most.

Appearing to hold back tears, Armstrong said he confessed to the three oldest children over the recent holiday break. "The older kids need to not be living with this issue in their lives," the athlete said. "It isn't fair."

Speaking specifically about his 13-year-old son, whom he had heard defending him, Armstrong said he told the youth: "Don't defend me anymore."

Hindsight is 20/20.

The former Tour de France icon said he did not think there was anything wrong with what he was doing at the time he did it -- something he today finds "scary." That he didn't feel guilty was in retrospect "even scarier."

That he did not think it was cheating is the "scariest" part. "I viewed it as a level playing field," he said, where most everybody doped.

Armstrong also does not believe he could have won cycling's most prestigious race seven times in a row without performance enhancing drugs. And his success was not synonymous with contentment.

"That wasn't the happiest time of my life," Armstrong said of his championship years. He told Winfrey he felt happier giving her his confession.

But his doping and bullying years also weren't the worst in his life, he said. The time of his cancer diagnosis was worse.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Armstrong would like to compete again but has no interest in returning to the Tour de France. He'd like to be able to run in the Chicago Marathon when he's 50, but the punishment he's been slapped with won't allow it.

"I can't run the Austin 10K," he said. "Anything that is sanctioned" by an official governing body is ruled out.

"This may not be the most popular answer, but I think I deserve it (being allowed to compete), maybe not right now," Armstrong said. A six-month suspension is customary for doping he said, but he received a "death penalty."

Now that he has been caught and has confessed, lawsuits he won could be reviewed, and his victims could come after him, tearing away at his fortune.

But the nadir, Armstrong says, was his departure from his cancer awareness charity Livestrong, which distributed the iconic plastic yellow bracelets.

It happened in two phone calls.

They first asked him to resign as chairman of the board.

The second call was less to the point. "We need you to consider stepping down for yourself," Armstrong said he was told.

He got out of the way and hopes the charity, which was built on his debunked fairy tale legacy, can carry on without him.

"It hurt like hell," Armstrong said. "That was the lowest."

Armstrong's golden halo in the sport's annals has decayed to a black mark. No other cyclist was awarded the victories he was disqualified from.

In place of a record seven wins by Lance Armstrong, the chronicles of the Tour de France bear seven record vacancies.